Missoula, MT – Climate change is a topic of discussion for political leaders, college professors and everyone in between.
Climate change is such a hot and controversial topic… Everyone talks about it so I wanted to learn whether climate change and wildfires are related.
I spoke with a professor and a scientist to get some answers.
“So when I imagine our forest cover of say, the end of the century, 2100, I think our landscape will look a far bit different,” said University of Montana Regents Professor of Ecology Dr. Steve Running.
The forests are important to many people in The Treasure State, but as fires burn them, the regrowth may look different.
“The forest that burns off will not be replaced by that identical forest,” added Running.
Dr. Running, and other scientists, believe climate change is related to longer fire seasons.
“We all know with global warming that temperatures are going up and what we’ve found in our studies of the Northern Rockies are that the fire season, is oh, something like a month longer than it was say, 50 years ago,” said Running.
Climate change is a complex issue to understand, but the relationship with the fire season is simple.
“Simply because the snowpack melts earlier in the spring and the temperatures rise enough that the forest, the fuels, dry out that much earlier,” added Running.
But with the fire season extended, that means there will be more fires releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which could contribute to climate change.
“Carbon emissions from fire could potentially affect the warming effect of the climate, is very established,” said Research Ecologist for the Rocky Mountain Research Center Matt Jolly.
Scientists say there needs to be a balance between carbon emission and carbon storage… and when a plant takes up carbon from the atmosphere, it stores that carbon in branches, stems and roots.
But…
“When you have an imbalance, that imbalance means that you have a lot more fire than you’re actually taking up then you can have a net loss of carbon to the atmosphere rather than the vegetation soaking up all of it,” added Jolly.
Looking ahead to next fire season and seasons after that..
“Projections for climate of the future is that in 50 years, it’ll be another month longer. So basically this is a slow, continuing trend of our fire season getting longer,” said Running.
Scientists don’t have a definite answer whether or not fire seasons are getting longer due to climate change directly, but they can say that they are definitely related in some ways.
Reporter: Mikenzie Frost